Frederick Haldimand

Sir Frederick Haldimand, KB (August 11, 1718 – June 5, 1791) was a British army officer and governor.

Haldimand was born, baptised and died in Yverdon, Switzerland as François-Louis-Frédéric Haldimand and spent his early military career, from 1740 to 1756, in Europe; in the army of the King of Sardinia, the Prussian Army, and then with the Swiss Mercenaries.

He joined the British army at the outbreak of the French and Indian War and remained in Canada after it was captured from the French in 1759. He served as military governor of Trois-Rivières, Quebec. He returned to Europe in 1774.

He became Governor of the Province of Quebec (which at the time included what is now Ontario) in 1778 serving through the American Revolution. Haldimand built up Quebec's defenses and sent raiding parties (Carleton's Raid (1778) and the Burning of the Valleys in 1780) into the rebellious American colonies. At the end of the American Revolution he helped settle American refugees who became known as United Empire Loyalists in what became first New Brunswick and later Ontario and also settled the Six Nations in Canada. In the summer of 1784 he was recalled to England, but it was two years before a successor was made.

Legacy

* Haldimand County, Ontario and Haldimand Beach near the town of Gaspé, Quebec are named after him.
* Fort Haldimand at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario was named after him in 1949. This dormitory is currently closed for renovations.

ee also

Haldimand Proclamation

External links

* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=2445 Biography at the "Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online"]
* [http://www.haldimand-collection.ca Index of the 232 series of the "Haldimand Collection" Abstracts in English and in French]
* [http://www.fortklock.com/hhahaldimand.htm Sir Frederick Haldimand: His Influence on the Mohawk Valley]